Have you been overcharged for laptop repairs?

Turns out that people are being overcharged for basic laptop repairs, according to an investigation.

Of course, this won't be news to some people, but they're exactly the kind of people who found this out, learned how to fix everything themselves, and then kept the whole thing under their hat and moaned about sheeple on their Twitter accounts.

For those that didn't know, there's a chance you're being ripped off.

The folks at Which!!! placed basic software faults on a number of devices that should have cost £50 or less to fix, but found that most retailers were willing to charge over £100.

Nine Windows laptops and 15 MacBooks were used to see if Apple, the Carphone Warehouse, Currys & PC World and some independent stores were pulling a fast one.

According to Which!!!'s findings, Currys & PC World only managed to fix one of six laptops correctly and charged £154 for it. One job cost £169.99 to fix and had the wrong operating system installed, with the customer being told that they needed to buy a new hard drive that they did not need.

The Carphone Warehouse performed better than the rest, asking for £50, £20 and £24.99 for the repair of three Windows laptops. That said, they also advised one customer that they needed to buy a £40 hard drive they didn't need and another laptop had all data unnecessarily wiped while a new OS was being installed.

The independent shops were just as bad, with one charging £200 for data recovery.

Apple meanwhile, didn't charge anything to repair four of six MacBooks, but didn't bother with two others because they were older models.

"It's shocking that major high street retailers are failing consumers when faced with such basic repair issues and are charging people through the nose in the process," Which!!! editor Richard Headland said. "We want to see improved staff training and repair procedures, as well as fair and consistent pricing so people can be confident in the services they receive."

1 comment

2 years agoAlexis

Apple may be expensive, but you do get decent aftercare. My 18 month iMac died and they carried out £600 worth of repairs, no questions asked, They even said they were obliged to because of the Sales of Goods Act.
Try finding another retailer that pulls that one out of the bag, without being prompted.